Prior to setting forth a short discussion of the related art, it may be helpful to set forth definitions of certain terms that will be used hereinafter.
The term “pilot incompetence” as used herein, is defined as physiological condition that prevents a pilot from carrying out a flight mission at an adequate performance level.
The term “Hypoxia” as used herein, is defined as a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen supply. Hypoxia may be classified as either generalized, affecting the whole body, or local, affecting a region of the body.
The term “vital signs” as used herein, is defined as measures of various physiological statistics, often taken by health professionals, in order to assess the most basic body functions. Vital signs may include: body temperature, pulse rate (or heart rate), blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and respiratory rate, and similar parameters indicative of the human body vitality.
The term “Photoplethysmography” or PPG as used herein is defined as the use of light traces transmitted through organ tissues in order to analyze physiologic parameters of the organ. The term “Reflectance Photoplethysmography” or “Reflectance PPG” as used herein is defined as PPG based on measurement of the intensity of light passed through the tissue and reflected back to the same side of the tissue as the light source.
The term “Dynamic light scattering” or DLS as used herein is defined as a technique in physics that can be used to determine the size distribution profile of small particles in suspension or polymers in solution. DLS can also be used to probe the behavior of complex fluids such as concentrated polymer solutions.
Pilot incompetence is one of the causes for air crashes and is an ongoing safety issue in aerial transportation. Monitoring the health of the pilot is not always an easy task as there are many parameters that may change from individual to individual. Additionally, the risk of receiving undesirable “false alarms” in these systems is relatively high since the “no detection” of pilot incompetence is completely undesirable.